Meditation for Pole Dance

I wrote this page to help you find the value in meditation for pole dance and how it can help you develop yourself in pole dance.

At first I thought everyone would find this silly. But I know how strong the mind-body connection is and I have seen only very, very few instructors address it in pole dance.

Sheila Kelley of the S Factor is one of them. In her book and DVD series, she constantly brings to mind that body awareness that we forget about when trying to learn a new step in pole. We get caught up in the technicalities, which are good to learn, but when we are not in tune with ourselves, our emotion, aware of how our bodies are feeling and reacting, there is a huge disconnect that happens and we do not internalize, learn and express like we can.

Isadora Duncan, a famous American dancer, said once:

"There are likewise three kinds of dancers: first, those who consider dancing as a sort of gymnastic drill, made up of impersonal and graceful arabesques; second those who, by concentrating their minds, lead the body into the rhythm of a desire emotion, expressing a remembered feeling or experience. And finally, there are those who convert the body into a luminous fluidity, surrendering it to the inspiration of the soul."

I want to be dancer #3.

How can a meditation for pole dance help me?

There are several tools that can help us to become that fluid dancer.

Body Awareness. Being aware of our bodies is a key to having deeper emotional experiences. When the awareness of our physical selves is heightened, when we are conscious of the way our hair is feeling across our faces or the way the cold metal of our pole is warming against our skin or the way our buttocks feel when we squat slowly, the experience of our dance takes on a differnet level than just a workout session. All of a sudden it IS an experience, one laced with EMOTION.

Feelings can surface when we are aware; we become aware of the tightness in our chest because of an earlier argument or the lack of posture in our spine because of a depressed feeling.

Here is a FREE guided mediation you can use as a meditation for pole dance, even if you have never meditated before, that will bring you into a wonderful awareness of your body and the space around you.

Dancing Meditation. You can also dance in a meditation with certain exercises. One awesome, liberating and very fun exercise is by Pragito Dove, who is a master at expressive meditation techniques. It is called "Dancing Meditation" and is guided by a CD or mp3 called Osho Nataraj that you can get here.

The meditation is designed to:

Free expression through dance

Celebrate yourself

Release tensions and creativity arises

Freeing the body allows the mind to expand, your heart to open and your spirit to fly

It is amazing! It is a hour-long exercise but you can modify it to your time constraints. Even doing part of the exercise is very helpful. For about 40 minutes you are dancing blindfolded - with abandon - from wild, to gentle to celebratory.

When emotions surface in this state, you express them through your dance movements. When you are doing the exercise, it is almost like you stop thinking about doing the dance and you become the dance. You become that 'fluidity' that Isadora mentions.

For 20 minutes you are totally still and silent and then the CD guides you with music to when it is time to get up and do 5 more minutes of child-like dance. Try it before you dis it!!!

A meditation for performing

This meditation is titled "Momentary Dance" by Kelsey Garrett and such a beautiful self-conversation to have if you are going to perform...for an audience or for a lover or even just for yourself.

"My heart is racing. I can feel my stomach in my feet. Its just waiting for me, taunting me, inviting me.

I’m hiding behind a curtain, blocking the world from everything but what they came to see. However, I do not acknowledge their existence. Its just me, and the stage. I have 3 minutes, no more, no less, to prove to the stage I am worthy of its use. I can’t pause, rewind, or control the music.

Once I step out from behind the curtain, I become naked, there’s no turning back. I close my eyes and try to control my breathing. I’m about to reveal my deepest thoughts to the world, but I convince myself there’s no one watching. It’s like writing in a diary, pouring out every thought and feeling, then publishing it for everyone to criticize.

I take my first step onto the stage, full of emotions, knowing when I come off I will be empty. I’ve always learned to leave it behind, to feed myself to the stage. When I leave, I am pure, untouched, and reborn."

A meditation for pole dance

This is my meditation for pole dance. It's not perfect, but it brings about an awareness of my body, brings out emotion and feeling and serves it purpose of letting me be free and creative instead of mechanical and not full engaged.

"I stand here ready to engage with my pole. I close my eyes and feel my hands on the cool metal, my bare feet feel the smooth floor. I will move with my emotions today. I will let the sensations from my soul, from my chest, those feelings locked in my belly rise and spread across my arms, up my neck, into my head, down my thighs all the way to my feet on the floor.

"I will love and respect every feeling and every moment of awareness that comes out and I will dance with it. I will let it take me, undulating motion that doesn't stop until I dance my heart out, empty but at the same time so full and complete. I will dance with abandon, with anger, with peace, with the deepest touches of love, with sensuality, with my bare and raw emotions.

"Today I am the dance. Today I am one with this metal, today my emotions will carry me through every turn, curve, pivot, climb, swing, spin and grip. Today I am the dance."